Massive Violation of Human Rights of the Aboriginal People in the Northern Territories

Ahnee Friends,

Read the article below and take whatever action you can. We're trying to organize an event. News is that Aboriginal Australians are marching on their parliament this Saturday. Protest marches in support are also being held by Maori people in Wellington and Auckland Aotearoa/New Zealand.

This is a blatant violation of basic human rights. Howard's polls have been sliding so he's taking this action now even though the report he's basing it on is, apparently, TEN YEARS OLD! Also, there are reports that the government is using this as an excuse to alter Aboriginal land rights - so basically it's a land grab aimed at gaining political points for the Howard government. Troops have already been moved into the Territories! Very disturbing to say the least.

To send messages of outrage to the Australian Consulate in Canada:

Australian High Commission ( Australian )
50 O'Connor Street Suite 710, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 6L2
Telephone ..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = SKYPE />              (613)236-0841       
Fax (613) 236-4376

Hard law hard love..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />

Monday, July 2, 2007

The federal government is taking strong steps to curb violence and sexual

abuse in Aboriginal communities. In doing so, John Howard has effectively

taken the powers from the Territory and handed them to his own minister. By

Paul Toohey.

John Howard says there's no politics in his Aboriginal rescue mission. Don't

believe it. The politics run deep. In one decisive manoeuvre, Howard has

simultaneously rescued himself, undoing seven months of bad polls which have

seen him branded out of touch, disconnected and missing from the game.

Howard is back. Not the defensive Howard of late, but the same leader who

changed the gun laws after the ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Port Arthur massacre of 1996; who ordered the

troops to liberate East Timor in 1999. The prime minister agrees his

Northern Territory reforms are of the same weight as those events, his most

profound moral interventions.

"It's sort of in that category, yeah," he tells The Bulletin. "I haven't

preoccupied myself [ranking it]. It's going to be a very tough thing. But

it's an awful story."

This is hard-law and hard-love Howard. It is the cloak he wears best. And he

says it has been one of his most satisfying moments. "Yeah, I think I'm

doing the right thing. I don't want to invest it with ego but I really

believe in it. It's one of those occasions in public life where you feel you

can strike a decisive blow to make things better for a weak and vulnerable

section of the community.

"We haven't changed our policy in relation to land rights generally. But

whatever is needed to be done in the process of establishing a safe society

for indigenous children will be done. That is more important to me than<O:P>

anything else. It's more important than any doctrine or philosophy."

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough likewise believes intervention of

this kind only comes once in a generation. "Clearly, in domestic terms, it's

the largest intervention I can recall ever in my lifetime," he says. "Can't

think of anything else like it. It's the one opportunity to do what people

have been crying out for - to repair the damage of years of failure."

Asked if he would have resigned from politics if he had not been able to win

the radical reforms introduced last week, Brough says: "Ah, I had no

intention of being there for the long haul if I couldn't make a change."

Those changes have seen Chief Minister Clare Martin lose her right to govern

half of the Northern Territory. The feds can do what they like in the

Territory because it is not a fully fledged state; it still hangs to

Canberra's skirt. At a press conference on Thursday, Martin seemed stunned.

She had not been told of what was coming, yet kept saying she would work "in

partnership" with the Commonwealth. She did not get it.

"Yeah, well, I'll let others work that out," says Brough. "I was

exasperated. Why have an elected government that won't act?"

The intervention is not a partnership. The Commonwealth will take full

control of more than 60 communities; abolish the permit system for

communities and the roads leading to and from them; strictly enforce alcohol

restrictions, send in about 70 police from other states, plus federal

police; it will quarantine welfare payments so that money goes to food and

not grog; it will demand that the Territory take control of the squalid town

camps in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, and turn them into places fit for

humans; it will try to ban porn; monitor children's sexual health; force

people on income support to clean their communities; and link school

non-attendance to parents' welfare payments. It is a revolution.